Saturday, October 1, 2016

I get that the NCAA is trying to reduce the incidence of head trauma. Fine. Noble goal. If you want to say that _any_ hit to the head is illegal, call it an "illegal hit to the head".

When you call it "targeting", however, the use of such term implies intent on the part of the hitter and that the basis is for the call is that intention. If the initial point of contact isn't the head - that the contact to the head was the result of the initial contact getting deflected/redirected into the head, you can't claim intent. If the hitting player was otherwise not in control of their impact-path (e.g., they got blocked), you can't claim intent. Change the name of the fucking penalty.

And, no, I don't care if saying "targeting" is easier for lazy referees to slobber ito their mics than "illegal hit to the head" is.